Dog walkers discovered the decaying body of a missing woman in a drainage ditch and arrested a man.
Stephanie Lynn Shenefield, 38, went missing on June 2 in Bradenton and was found in Palmetto, Florida.
Later, Redden was allegedly caught on tape taking a woman out of his house and loading her into his car.
On Thursday, Redden was arrested and charged with mistreatment of a body, possession of a firearm by a convicted criminal, and possession of a modified firearm.
‘The family realized something was up,’ Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells told the Sun. Stephanie’s behavior was completely out of character.
Redden first cooperated with police, allowing them to search his home, according to investigators.
They went on to say that after they discovered film of him taking what they thought was a body out of his house from his surveillance camera, Redden refused to cooperate any more.
Stephanie dies inside that house sometime throughout the night. Sheriff Wells stated, “We don’t know the cause of death.”
‘However, what we do is that William Redden does nothing.’ He does not dial 9-1-1. He does not contact the authorities. He doesn’t make any phone calls.’
After being arraigned, Redden remains in jail.
Redden is accused of bringing a body wrapped in a sheet into the backseat of his car before driving away around 12:20 p.m., according to police.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, family and friends began distributing leaflets around town offering a reward.
‘With the cooperation of Shenefield’s roommate, police were able to access her laptop and discovered she had taken an Uber to the residence of William Redden in the early hours of June 3,’ Sheriff Wells told reporters.
Authorities then started following her electronic gadgets in the hopes of finding her body.
That’s when two Palmetto residents called to report seeing a body in a drainage ditch in a field while out walking their dogs on Thursday.
‘Stephanie was badly decomposed,’ Wells said, adding that it took a long time to identify her and notify her family.
Jennifer Massrock, Shenefield’s ten-year friend, expressed her disbelief at the news.
‘Whatever he gets, he deserves it,’ Massrock said. ‘We’re going to get Stephanie justice.’
According to sheriff’s office spokesperson Randy Warren, an autopsy was done Friday to ascertain the cause and manner of death.